Improvement in musical notations for accordeons



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Letters Patent No. 110,719, dated January 3, 1871.

IMPROVEMENT IN. MUSICAL NOTATIONS FOR ACCORDEONS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making parl: of thesame.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, CARL FRIEDRICH ZIMMER` MANN, of the city and countyof Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new System ofSelf-Instruction for Accordcons; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact de-I scription of the same,reference heilig had to the accompanying drawing and to the letters ofreference marked thereon.

My invention consists of a system ot' lines and iigures which can beplayed in the same time as notes; and also of a method whereby the saidsystem ot' lines and and figures can be applied to the various Germanaccordeons.

On reference to the accompanying drawing making part of thisspeciticationm Figure l' indicates the motion ofthe bellows of theGerman and French accordeons;

Figure 2 shows rthe figures and rests in their various divisions oftime; and

Figure 3 represents the key-board otV an accordeon, and shows the methodwhereby the system oi' lines and iigures can be applic-dto all kinds ofGerman accordeons.

By my new system the keys of an accordeon are numbered as shown at iig.3. The keys produce two different notes, one in drawing, and one inpressing. When to draw and when to press is shown in tig. l. Thedivision between the air and tenor figures and the bass is either aheavy line, A, or two parallel lines, B. They indicate the motion of thebellows, that is, whether to draw or press.r The heavy lineA indicatesto press the German accordeon, and the parallel lines B to draw thesame. In the French aecordeon the heavy line A indicates to draw and theparallel lines B to press. The motionv of the air or tenor and the bassremains invariably the same.

In this new-line system, the duration ot' sound and of all the rests, O,iig. 2, each one, precisely upto the next following, is indicated by anexact division of the space.

To accomplish this, every piece of music is divided as nearly aspossible into equal spaces, x y., iig. 2, by heavy verticalbars orlines, a, and subdivided by light lines', b, for quarter time; forinstance, a whole note requires four spaces, f g h k one-half noterequires two spaces, Z m one-quarter note requires one space, a;one-eighth note requires one-half space o; and one-sixteenth noterequires one-quarter space, p; in the substitution of iigurcs for notesthe iigures correspond with the keys of the accordeon, which arenumbered, and also with the notes in the music; for instance, in the4quarter notes figure 6 corresponds with e in the quarter time, with (l,with c, and' again with d.

The relation of the German accordeon to my system of linesand gures is amatter ot' paramount im portance, but not with regard to the Frenchaccordeon or flutina, all thc varieties of which are founded on the sameprinciple, and arranged according to one and the same scale. It .is onlyamong German manufacturers ot' accordeons that there are three differentways of selecting the starting-point of a piece of music for the iirstkey; for instance, some start with the iifth note in their scale on theirst key, which is numbered one; some are started with the third note intheir scale on the iirst key, which is numbered one;

and others are started with the first note in their scale on the iirstkey, which ris also numbered one. My system ofliues and figures isdesigned for thc first above-described accordeon, (that which is startedwith the fifth note in its scale and numbered one.) Io make itapplicable to the second kind of accordeon, (that which is started withthe third note in its scale on the rst key, numbered one,) it will benecessary to arrange the lower row of the supplemental draw ing markedsupplemental View No. l of the accompanying drawing, over the keys ofthe accordeon,

shown at iig. 3, placing O of the row over l of the keys.

To make my system applicable to the third description of Germanaceordeons, (or that which is started with the irst note in the scale onthe first key, numbered one,) arrange the upper row marked supplementalview No. 2, placing O O, over key l of the accordeon.

Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to'securc by Letters Patent, is

l. The system of musical not-ation, consisting of the three-lined staff,iig. l, and adaptable to either French or German accordeons, as shownand described.

2. In connection with the abovestati, the measure divided by equalspace-marks y, iig. 2, between which the key-unilibers are indicated,substantially as described.

In testimony where-ot` I hereunto sign my name to this specification inpresence of two subscribing witnesses.

CARL FRIEDRICH ZIHMERMANN.

IVitnesscs:

C. G. Zimmermann, Faascrs D. IAs'romus.

